Obama picks Michigan State to win men's tourney

Mar. 19, 2014
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President Obama / Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

President Obama picked Michigan State to defeat Louisville for the 2014 men's college basketball title.

Again filling out his brackets for ESPN, Obama said Michigan State survived the injury problems that hurt the Spartans in the regular season. "Tom Izzo is a great tournament coach," he said.

Obama predicted Michigan State will beat Florida in one of the Final Four semifinals, while Louisville - the tournament's defending champion - will beat Arizona in the other semifinal.

It's the sixth straight year that the president has participated in what ESPN calls "Barack-etology."

Obama has correctly predicted the men's tournament winner only once, North Carolina in 2009.

And, as National Journal pointed out, Obama has correctly picked only four of the 20 Final Four teams in the five previous years.

Obama's picks in the women's basketball tournament will be revealed this week.

In the men's bracket, Obama is going with favorites.

Florida and Arizona - two of his Final Four picks - are the top seeds in their regions.

Michigan State and Louisville - who Obama says will meet in the final game - are four seeds, but both teams finished the season strongly and are considered strong bets to win the entire tournament.

"I know these are not imaginative picks," Obama told ESPN's Andy Katz. "But I think they are the right ones."

Obama doesn't have much regard for Vice President Biden's favorite teams, picking Delaware and Syracuse to go out early.

Syracuse, where Biden attended law school, loses to Ohio State in its second game, according to Obama's bracket.

Obama also picked Delaware â?? where Biden was an undergraduate â?? to lose to heavily favored Michigan State in its opening game, though most people are making that prediction.

"I'll let Biden fill out his own bracket," Obama said. "If he wants to pick Delaware over Michigan State, I'll let him do it."

Obama also joked about the contest being sponsored by billionaire Warren Buffett. The Omaha investor, a Creighton fan, is offering $1 billion to anyone who picks every tournament game correctly, among the longest of long shots.

Asked what he might do with Buffett's billion, Obama said: "I'm sure somebody would ask me to pay down more of the federal debt â?¦ Michelle might want a few shoes."

"The President has picked three different teams in the "Barack-etology" era to win the men's title -- Indiana (over Louisville in 2013), Kansas (over Ohio State in 2011 and Kentucky in 2010) and North Carolina (over Kentucky in 2012 and Louisville in 2009). His correctly picked national champion was the Tar Heels in '09.

"Last year Obama's men's bracket ranked 2,080,996 out of 8.15 million entries in ESPN.com's free ESPN Men's Tournament Challenge, placing him in the 74.4th percentile."